


By Definition

by orphan_account



Category: EXO (Band), K-pop
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Professors, Comedy, Fluff, Graduate School, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-06
Updated: 2017-06-06
Packaged: 2018-11-09 14:56:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11106918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Academics and Apple computers: Are they mutually exclusive? (Or is this problem unique to Yixing?)





	By Definition

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the story.
> 
> If you enjoy this, please let me know!

This is the story of how Park Chanyeol conned new student Byun Baekhyun into taking him out to dinner. (Also known as Chanyeol's an ass because how was Baekhyun supposed to know that Professor Zhang and PHD candidate Wu can't keep their hands off each other?)

It was the first day of the new semester, Baekhyun's first ever as a graduate student actually, and Baekhyun, entering the seminar hall two minutes before class was set to begin, took in hipster sunbaes and thought they were probably the most intellectual, badass human beings he'd ever have the pleasure to study with. Then they opened their mouths.

Kim Jongdae, also known as Chen, was 30 and currently working on his third MA--courtesy of a rich husband who worried that if his yeobo didn't have anything to do with his time, that he'd find  _someone_  to do with his time.

Huang Zitao was effortlessly terrifying in appearance but also so flawless and flamboyant even in his late 20s that Baekhyun instantly wanted to be his friend. That proved easily said  _and_  done because Zitao was a panda at heart--and in his eye bags.

Park Chanyeol was the only other Masters student anywhere close to Baekhyun's meager 23 years of age, but the taller guy had started his education a little earlier and refused to let Baekhyun forget it. He was the only one who actually forced Baekhyun to use honorifc titles and basically became the bane of Baekhyun's existence as the semester progressed. (As for the sunbae thing, Baekhyun thought that it was probably one of Chanyeol's kinks; especially since Baekhyun was technically the other's hyung, out in the real world.)

Wu Yifan was one half of the reason why Chanyeol could be such a thorn in Baekhyun's side in the first place. He was Professor Zhang's TA and Professor Zhang was his adviser; and Baekhyun hadn't known what they did behind locked doors during "Office Hours" or else he would never have tried to argue when Chanyeol took one look at Professor Zhang's misbuttoned shirt and told Baekhyun cheekily "I bet they were going at it in Yixing's office before class."

Baekhyun had met Zhang Yixing when he'd been applying to this particular program. The professor had been briliant, sure, but also vaguely absentminded. Baekhyun could easily imagine the man getting dressed, getting distracted, and then getting to work with the buttons on his shirt done up incorrectly. As such he had no problem taking Chanyeol up on that bet, though he realized later that Chanyeol meant the phrase more as a figure of speech anyway.

"I bet he just wasn't paying attention when he got ready this morning."

Chen snorted. Tao leaned back in his chair as he inspected his cuticles, completely disintered in the conversation.

"You're on!" Chanyeol crowed loudly. It was enough to attract Yixing's attention from where the professor was leaning worriedly over the Apple desktop permanenly stationed in the corner of the room. The computer was meant for presentations and was hooked up to a joint AV-sound system that wasn't that bad actually. It also wasn't too hard to use, but in Baekhyun's experience most academics were horrifically bad at anything to do with electronics. Except for him, obviously, because he was a freaking star at  _life_ , and apparently except for TA Wu, too, because all it took from Yixing was a pained look of confusion and Yifan was at his side, ready to assist.

Chanyeol took in the scene with as much interest as Baekhyun, despite the fact that they were both reading it in two completely different ways. "If they're sleeping together," Chanyeol challeneged, gaze still anchored to Yifan and Yixing as the PHD student fit his muscular arms snuggly around the professor's smaller form--completely unnecessarily, in Baekhyun's opinion--and showed him how to do something on the desktop. "You're buying me dinner."

Baekhyun acquiesced with a nod. Yifan put his hand over Yixing's on the mouse and Baekhyun suddenly wondered what he'd gotten himself into. "If they aren't..." He paused to consider what he'd want in return for victory, and Chen snorted again. This time Tao joined him. "I stop calling you sunbae, and you call me hyung." Chanyeol considered that for a moment, then grinned.

"Call!" And that was that.

Only it wasn't. The semester passed both far too slow and far too fast--the way that school always does--and it didn't take long for Baekhyun to realize how badly he'd already lost the bet.

That first week Professor Zhang had wanted to show a short introductory presentation, during which time he'd told them all to call him Yixing and then had apologized in advance for all the waiting they would have to do while he figured out the necessary technology each week. Baekhyun had thought the apology strange until the second week when Yixing tried showing a dramatized clip of one of the text's they were reading and wasted a good 20 minutes doing so. Yifan came to Yixing's rescue this time too, and Baekhyun didn't miss the quick hug of thanks the professor gave his TA when the video started playing--nor did he miss the enormously smug grin Chanyeol shot him when this all occurred.

There was a national holiday on the third week of classes, so Yixing suggested they meet for drinks and discussion instead. Yifan had kept the professor's glass filled all night long, and when Tao bowed out first, claiming that he wouldn't be able to look at his face in the morning if he continued to drinking, Yifan had been the second to leave--with an inebriated and quite handsy professor in tow. Chen's husband called him then and the older man had gone running, leaving Chanyeol and Baekhyun to their own devices which may or may not have included a heated make out session that both claimed to have no knowledge of when questioned about it the next week.

"When I was your age I always drank until I blacked out," Yixing threw in to the conversation that consisted of Chen and Tao being annoyingly persistent in their nosiness and Baekhyun and Chanyeol pretending obliviousness. "Luckily I have Yifan watching out for me these days." The TA's answer was a gummy smile that Baekhyun uncharitably found unbearably ugly, but really only because Yixing had all but confirmed his and Yifan's relationship.

He  _actually_  confirmed it a few weeks later, prompting a huffy "Damn it!" from Baekhyun when he walked into the seminar room a half hour early and caught his professor straddling Yifan on the computer desk. The TA's large hands were tied with what looked like an AUX chord but he seemed to have no problem allowing Yixing to have his way with him. Just like Yixing had no problem telling Baekhyun later that using something which usually made him feel ineffectual to dominate his partner was incredibly sexually satisfying. Baekhyun had gagged--politely, of course--and turned to Chanyeol in defeat.

"Just don't ask for meat," he pleaded pitifully; he was still a student after all.

"I'm a vegan," Yixing piped in, yet again joining a conversation he had no part in and then saying things that Baekhyun really didn't want to know. "Yifan's enough meat for me."


End file.
